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x^ifty Years in Kansas 



A Brief Sketch of the Life of George 
W^. Martin, Secretary of The Kansas 
State Historical Society: :::::::: 



BY WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY 



Fifty years is longer than the avci'age of Ini- 
man life. No great proportion of the human 
race is so fortunate as to have so long a period of 
time for active labor. George W. Martin has been 
fifty years in Kansas. He was well grown, robust 
and strong when he came. He immediately ap- 
plied himself steadily to useful labor, and if he 
has ever lost a day since I have not heard of iL 
He has spent a half-century here on the Great 
Plains in hard work. A review of his life is a his- 
tory of the State. Few men were ever so active 
in public life, and Martin has left his impress on 
Kansas and her institutions. No State ever had 
a more loyal son or devoted citizen. George W. 
Martin caught the true inspiration of Kansas the 
day he entered her borders. It has been his guid- 
ing star. He helped make Kansas, and is proud 
of his part in the job. Few men ever had a wider 
acquaintance in the State, none ever had more 
friends. He has had enemies and still has them. 
He has made mistakes and may make others. 
But he is outspoken, rugged, square, honest. He 



Fifty Years in Kansas, 



is in the prime of life, strong and vigorous, and we 
hope he has many years of useful toil in Kansas 
yet before him. This brief sketch is written by 
one who has known him many years — known him 
in prosperity and the most blighting adversity, 
and who always found him with his face to the 
foe, sword in hand, battling heroically as every 
real man should — always found him cheerful, with 
a hopeful heart, doing his duty as a true man, con- 
fident of the future, and always without a word of 
complaint. The influence for good of such a man 
is always great. 

WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY. 
ToPEKA, Kansas, April 15, 1907. 



AUG III! 



FIFTY YEARS IF KANSAS. 



BY WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY. 

In some corner of North Ireland there must be 
a region devoted exclusively to the propagation of 
the C Ian Martin. It is quite evident that the in- 
dividuals of that name have overrun that country, 
and have been for many years spreading abroad 
engaged in the conquest of the earth. Martins 
are found here and there — everywhere — IVlartins 
with black eyes and Martins with blue eyes — 
Martins with brown hair and Martins with red 
hair — Martins of all kinds, sizes, and dispositions. 
They liave settled in Kansas in such numbers that 
it is doubtful if they can ever be entirely eradicated. 
Look at this list, hurriedly made: 

Martin, John A. : Governor, Secretary Wyan- 
dotte Constitutional Convention, State Senate 
1801, Colonel Eighth Kansas Regiment. 

Martin, John : United States Senator, District 
Judge, and twice Democratic nominee for Gover- 
nor, House 1874, 1875. 

Martin, David : Chief Justice Supreme Court, 
and Judge of District Court. 

Martin, George W. : State Printer, House 
1883, and Secretary of State Historical Society. 

(3) 



Fijty Years in Kansas. 



Martin, Wyly: Captain Regular Army, who 
established first mihtary post in Kansas, in 1818. 

Martin, J. \Y. : Captain Kickapoo Rangers, 
1855. 

Martin, F. L., Hutchinson: Judge Ninth Dis- 
trict, 1892-1900. 

Martin, H. \V., Shawnee county: House, 1862. 

Martin, Dr. J. wS., Highland: House, 1869. 

Martin, C. S., Osage City: Senate, 1873-74- 
75-76. 

Martin, William, Winfield : House, 1874. 

Martin, James G., I>ouisburg: House, 1879. 

Martin, J. H., Parsons: House, 1879. 

Martin, J. C, Kingman: House, 1879. 

Martin, I. G., Paola: House, 1883. 

Martin, J. W., I^adore : House, 1885-87-89. 

Martint, W. W., Fort Scott: Senate, 1889, 1891. 

Martin, A., Bluff City: House, 1889. 

Martin, S. C, Dinda: House, 1901. 

Martin, J. D., Yates Center: House, 1903; 
Senate, 1905, 1907. 

.Martin, W. W., Richfield: House, 1903. 

Martin, C. I., Fort Scott: Senate, 1905, 1907. 

Martin, Wm. H., Wyandotte: House, 1907. 
. And these are the names of only a few of those 
who have broken into public life. Think of the 
countless number by this name swarming beneath 
this pu})lic list, ready to burst forth and seize the 
direction of affairs at any time! But we can stand 



George W. Martin. 



it! When pinned ric;lit down to the facts and 
made to cross our heart, we arc compelled to ad- 
mit that they have been worthy men, and that 
their courses in Kansas have been creditable in 
the extreme. So, we sav, may the tribe increase ; 




GEORGE WASHINGTON MARTIN. 



may it ^row and flourish here on the green sod of 
Kansas! And while it is doing so we will take up 
for discussion a member of the clan who once 
boasted a head as red as was ever shown in a con- 
vention, but now, alas, assuming the hues of the 
flowering almond. 



Fifty Years in Kansas, 



David Martin and Mary Howell, parents of the 
subject of this sketch, were married at the head 
of Six, on the old Alleghany Portage inclined road, 
near Cresson, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1840. 
David was born in County Antrim, near Belfast, 
Ireland, December 1, 1814, and emigrated to Amer- 
ica in 1819, arriving at Baltimore, and settling in 
Indiana county, Pennsylvania. Mary Howell was 
born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in the year 1822. 
Her mother was a Spargo, whose family came from 
Wales and settled in Pittsburg in the year 1820. 
David Martin's grandfather, William Martin, 
emigrated from Scotland to Ireland. His son 
John married Elizabeth Martin, belonging to 
another family, and also from Scotland. David 
Martin and Mary Howell, upon their marriage in 
1840 settled at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. In 
1855 Mr. Martin came to Kansas to make a new 
home, and in the spring of 1857 brought his family 
to Douglas county. At 4 : 80 p. m. Friday, July 
29, 1892, Mary Martin died; and at 1:30 p. m. 
Saturday, July 30th, 1892, David Martin joined 
her in the land beyond the border. They were 
buried in one grave. Sabbath, July 31st. They 
had celebrated their golden wedding two years 
previously. They were of Covenanter stock. 
David Martin was a Mason and an Odd Fellow. 
He left home in 1834 to work on the construction 
of the Alleghany Portage Railroad, built by the 



George W. Martin. 



State of Pennsylvania to connect the waters of the 
Conemaiigh and the Juniata. They reared seven 
children: George W., the subject of this sketch; 
Edmund McKinney, Enid, Oklahoma; Mrs. Ai> 
nie L. Williams (now deceased), Rawlins county, 
Kansas; Elizabeth Lowe, in Nebraska; David 
Martin (deceased); John Martin, Colorado; and 
Stephen D. Martin, Colby, Kansas. 



George W. Martin was born at Hollidaysburg, 
Pa., June 30, 1841. He there worked in a print- 
ing-office. His father was a quiet man of pro- 
nounced views, and the attention attracted by 
Kansas in the fifties did not escape his notice, bat 
so aroused him that, like thousands of other pa- 
triotic men, he determined to cast his lot in the 
new Territory, sink or swim, live or die. Having 
taken up and improved a claim near Lecompton 
in 1855, he arrived with his family at Kansas City, 
April 7, 1857. George was impatient to go on, 
and set out late in the afternoon in the direction 
of Westport, passing on his way the fires of hun- 
dreds of men on their way to the fertile prairies of 
"Bleeding Kansas," camped in solid timber, 
where now stands Kansas City the wonderful. 
In the darkness their fires flared high all along the 
road. He stayed overnight at Westport, and early 
the next morning, in company with another bdy 
and four men, he entered the promised land. The 



8 



Fifty Years in Kansas. 



party was two days on the old California road. 
The last half-day after passing Lawrence, Martin 
suffered much from blistered feet. About four 
p. M., April 9, 1857, he limped into I.ecompton, 
then a pro-slavery town and the capital of the 




LYDIA COULSON MARTIN. 



Territory, and found lodging at the Locknane 
boarding-house. Going immediately to the post- 
office to get any mail that might have been sent 
to the family in the three weeks they had been on 
tlie road, he found a man from Hollidaysburg, the 
postmaster. This man began a tirade against 



George W. Martin. 



the preacher (Rev. David X. Jimkin, D.D.*) in 
whose church Martin had been brought up, and 
who had prayers with the family at four o'clock 
in the morning of the day they left Pennsylvania. 
Martin resented this abuse of the minister, and 




JOSEPHINE BLAKELY MARTIN. 



high words resulted in the threat of the postmaster 
to throw him out. The enterprise of the Martin 
family must be noted here, for this is the first 

*Dr. Junkin wrote a New Year's address for Martin, with which 
he gathered in $47.50, January 1, 1857, as carrier for the HoUidays- 
burg Register. 



10 F'^Py y^cif's ill Kansas. 

religious war of which there is any record in Kan- 
sas. George got started early in his work of mak- 
ing Kansas history. His family did not arrive 
for a week, being delayed by the father's convic- 
tion that the Kaw was navigable; he discovered 
his delusion at Lawrence, and hired a team to 
complete the journey. 

Young Martin secured a position in the office 
of the Lecompton Union, an intensely pro-slavery 
paper, edited mainly by L. A. MacLean, which 
gave way about July 1, 1857, to the National 
Democrat, a moderate-toned Democratic paper. 
Here he remained until October, 1859, when he 
left home for the first time. Most of the editorial 
matter for the Lecompton Democrat was furnished 
by William Brindle and Hugh S. Walsh, but as 
chore-boy in the office he also received a great deal 
of editorial copy from Robert J. Walker, Fred P. 
Stanton, and Samuel Medary. He believes that 
Judge Cato wrote for the Union, but is of the opin- 
ion that Gov. Denver never troubled himself with 
editing a new^spaper. If at that time Martin had 
possessed his present historical tendencies, what 
a story he might tell of those men, for they talked 
much in his presence. They frequently kept him 
waiting for copy, and one of the vivid pictures yet 
on his mind is a memory of the vicious but well- 
rounded profanity of L. A. MacIiCan in his con- 
versations about the Free-State Pennsvlvanians 



George W, Martin. 11 

in that vicinity. He remembers the pro-slavery 
leaders in Lecompton as clever and hospitable 
men, wild only in their language concerning "Ab- 
olitionists" and on the slavery question. 

The father had settled near Lecompton in 1855, 
and Martin once heard him say that during the 
summer of 1856, as he was going to Lecompton 
from his claim, which was two miles south, he was 
looking to the east and some miles off towards 
Lawrence he saw a fire start and a man coming 
from it in his direction. He continued to watch, 
and in traveling a few miles the man set fire to four 
or five barns and houses. Hiding in the brush, he 
followed the incendiarv into town and discovered 
that he knew him well — a very prominent pro- 
slavery man. 

Martin was greatly impressed by Samuel Walker 
because of two incidents which occurred within 
his knowledge. A notorious pro-slavery desper- 
ado had succeeded in bluffing several officers 
who attempted to arrest him, two Leavenworth 
policemen having been stood off by his pistol. 
Walker came after him one day, when he tried 
the same game ; but the officer was too quick for 
him, and knocked his pistol up with the left hand 
while he thrust a heavy revolver in his face with 
the right. The desperado succumbed. This same 
tough was at a card-table one day in Doyle's 
saloon with Judge Cato and two leading pro- 



12 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

slavery men. He told his companions that he 
had burned a stable near Lawrence, and that he 
expected Walker to arrest him. They each laid 
a revolver on the table and said he should not be 
molested. A Free-State Pennsylvanian was in 
the room and heard all of this. He came out of 
the saloon and met AValker in search of the man; 
he related what he had heard, and begged Walker 
to wait until he could get a gun and go along to 
assist him. After some persuasion Walker waited, 
but when the time came he rushed into the room, 
seized the desperado by the throat and dragged 
him unaided towards the door, covering the others 
with his revolver. 

The morning that Martin left Lecompton for 
the East, in October, 1859, he took the stage at 
the Rowena Hotel. During the night the news 
that John Brown had captured Harper's Ferry 
had been received, and the pro-slavery men were 
all excitement. Martin went to Philadelphia, 
where he remained until the spring of 1861, work- 
ing in a book office, where he completed a five- 
years' apprenticeship. 

George W. Martin was here almost at the be- 
ginning of Kansas history. Always active and 
stirring, he has witnessed as many exciting scenes 
and participated in as many important events as 
any man in the State. He is himself a part of our 
history. He was in the mass meeting of Free- 



George W. Martin. 



13 



State sympathizers which gathered at Lecompton 
at the sitting of the extra session of the Territorial 
Legislature in December, 1857, convened by Stan- 
ton to provide for the submission of the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution to a full and impartial vote of 




WILLIAM SAYERS BLAKELY. 



the people. He remembers well the speeches of 
Lane, Robinson, and Champion Vaughan, and it 
is his opinion that William Leamer, who still 
lives at Lecompton, saved the town that day. 
Sheriff Jones was determined to assault G. W. 



14 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

Brown, publisher of the Herald of Freedom. Mr. 
Learner hung to Jones until he got him away from 
the party. If Jones had carried out his intention, 
Martin believes the town would have been de- 
stroyed. A large poster had been circulated call- 
ing on the people to "assemble at Lecompton and 
witness the inauguration of the first legal Legis- 
lature ever assembled on the soil of Kansas," 
and they came by the hundreds. It was said that 
many of the wagons were loaded with guns, con- 
cealed under feed and other things. The picture 
in John Speer's book of Jim Lane making a speech 
from a wagon is good, he says, and he thinks Rob- 
inson spoke from the steps of the Land Office. 
He recalls one expression from the speech of 
Vaughan: "We are now crowing on their own 
dunghill; let them come forth!" Of this first 
session of a Free-State Legislature, elected in 1857 
by Walker and Stanton, when they threw out the 
Oxford fraud, but three are now living: O. E. 
Learnard, member of Council; E. N. Morrill, of 
Hiawatha, and H. Miles Moore, of Leavenworth, 
members of the House. 

Martin first saw Topeka in the summer of 1858. 
He borrowed a pony and rode up to see the town. 
The frame building on the corner of Fifth and 
Kansas avenue, south of the Federal Building, 
was there at that time, and an election was being 
held in it. On the opposite side of Kansas ave- 



George W. Martin. 15 

nue, between Fifth and Sixth streets, there was a 
deep gully with a small three-foot bridge across 
it. 

No man in Kansas has ever had a wider ac- 
quaintance among our prominent men than has 
George Martin. He has met and known person- 
ally every man of consequence in public affairs in 
Kansas from the beginning down, except Geary, 
Reeder, John Brown, and D. R. Atchison. He 
has seen every session of the State Legislature 
except that of 1861 ; and he saw the sessions of 
the Territorial Legislature of 1858 and 1859, also 
the special session of 1857. Of the first State 
Legislature, in 1861, but eight members are now 
living: P. P. Elder, of Franklin county; S. D. 
Houston, of Saline; Robert Morrow, of Douglas 
county; and J. M. Hubbard, of Wabaunsee, now 
a resident of Middletown, Conn., — State Senators; 
and David S. Ballard, of Washington county; 
Samuel J. Crawford, of Baxter Springs ; Ambrose 
U. Mussey, of Pottawatomie, and James McGrew, 
of Wyandotte, — ^House of Representatives 

Martin founded the Junction City Union, a 
newspaper that exercised a greater influence on 
Kansas politics than any other weekly ever es- 
tablished in the State. He arrived in Junction 
City, August 1, 1861. His paper was the most 
westerly in the State until 1^67, when B. J. F. 
Hanna established the Salina Herald. For fi\e 



16 



Fifty Years in Kansas. 



years the Union was the only paper published 
between Junction City and Denver. He says 
some of the editorials written in those days on the 
agricultural possibilities of Avestern Kansas were 
marvels of nerve and ignorance, but he has lived 




DAVID MARTIN. 



long enough to see them vindicated ; that he was 
then an unblushing prevaricator, held responsi- 
ble for all the crop failures up the Smoky Hill, 
but can now claim that he was a prophet. He 
made a *'boom" issue in February, 1869, and be- 
lieves it was the first in the State ; he published a 



George W. Martin. 



17 



daily for nine months, ending in August, 1867. The 
Leavenworth Conservative in 1864 remarked : "The 
editor of the Junction City Union beHeves that 
when God made things he put one point of the 
compass where Junction City now stands and gave 




MARY HOWELL MARTIN. 



it a twirl." Before the establishment of the Un- 
ion there had been three attempts at a Democratic 
paper in the town, all failures. The Republicans 
then asked the Democrats if they would stand 
aside and let them try a paper. They consented, 
saying they had made several failures, and would 



18 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

give all possible support to a Republican local 
paper, which they did. In an address entitled 
"The Country west of Topeka prior to 1865," 
delivered before the Historical Society, January 
15, 1889, Hon. James Humphrey said: 

*'In 1859 a newspaper was established, which 
proved to be a lively sheet. This was soon after 
turned over to George W. Martin, who made it 
livelier still. The history of Junction City is 
recorded in twenty-odd volumes of the Junction 
City IJnion^ and cannot be compressed within the 
limits of a few pages. No history of the town can 
be written without making distinguishing note of 
the Union, Its tone was vigorous and aggress- 
ive; it possessed the most marked individuality 
of, perhaps, any paper in the State. Many able 
pens wrote for it at diiferent times, but they all 
caught its gait and tone. For years it was Junc- 
tion City's chief evangel. It castigated the vi- 
cious, rebuked the sinner, raised its voice like one 
crying in the wilderness against 'Owl' clubs and 
other midnight carousals. It was a potent factor 
in local affairs, and its influence extended to every 
quarter of the State." 

In an address entitled "Kansas Journalists — 
Men of '57," Noble L. Prentis said : 

"The reflection of the editor's head casts its 
radiance all over the columns of the Union. Like 
[Sol] Miller, an elegant printer, as publisher of the 
Union Martin always kept his paper in the group 



George W. Martin. 19 



of a half-dozen very liandsorae weeklies of Kansas, 
which may be styled the belles of the newspaper 
ball." 

That the "Men of '57," so interestingly sketched 
by Noble L. Prentis in the American Journalist, 
December, 1883, possessed "sand" and endurance, 
it may be recalled that in addition to Martin, 
James Humphrey, who came to the Territory in 
1857, is still in the public service, and Cyrus 
Lei and, Jr., who also came that year, was a mem- 
ber of the Legislature of 1865 and did splendid 
service as a leader in the Legislature of 1907, just 
closed. Prentis wrote of T. D wight Thacher, 
D. W. Wilder, John A. Martin, M. M. Murdock, 
T. B. Murdock, Jacob Stotler, Sol Miller, D. R. 
Anthony, Thomas A. Osborn, P. B. Plumb, and 
S. S. Prouty. The list contains a United States 
Senator, two Governors, three State Printers, a 
State Auditor, six State Senators, four members 
and one Speaker of- the House, and in the second 
generation two native-born members of Congress. 
D. W. Wilder, the two Murdocks, and the subject 
of this sketch are the only ones living. 

The first manufacturing enterprise in the vicin- 
ity of Junction City was the production of sawed 
stone. A great effort w^as made to secure the use 
of that stone in the construction of the Capitol at 
Topeka. But the screaming of the Union was 



20 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

outdone by a Topeka combine, who found a red 
sandstone in the neighborhood of Vinewood. The 
foundation was laid in the fall of 1866, and in 
January following it was already apparent that the 
frost was making havoc with it. By spring it was 
a mass of mud. It cost the State $40,000 to put 
it in and take it out. The indignation of the 
Union overwhelmed everything else, and Junction 
City stone was finally used. The material for the 
remainder of the building was brought from Cot- 
tonwood, the choice turning on the question of 
transportation, the Union Pacific having but one 
member of the Commission, and the Santa Fe two. 
For a few years about that period one cognomen 
for the editor of the Union was "J. C. Sawed 
Stone." 

As a newspaper man Martin has never been 
surpassed in Kansas. He was a vigorous and 
sometimes a violent writer, always saying some- 
thing worth while, and constantly stirring things 
up. From August, 1868, to August, 1870, he 
carried his life in his hands because he called at- 
tention to a gang of horse-thieves in the vicinity 
of Junction City. The headquarters of the gang 
were in Junction City, in a saloon called the 
"Unknown." The north end of the route was 
Nebraska City and the south end at Douglass, in 
Butler county. On the 22d of August, 1868, a 
prominent citizen was hung by parties unknown. 



George W. Martin, 21 



Immediately the impression was manufactured 
that the hanging was done by a RepubHean vig- 
ilance committee, and because of certain expres- 
sions in the Union Martin was held responsible 
by this manufactured sentiment. For a year the 
friends of the dead man made life very uncom- 
fortable for Martin, and many nights the author- 
ities had special policemen about his home. Two 
years later (August, 1870), the friends of the dead 
man concluded they w^ere on the wrong scent. 
They secured from St. Louis two detectives, and 
Martin became their principal adviser. The re- 
sult of the fight was that the leader of the gang, 
who had for years been a notorious outlaw defying 
the officers all over central Kansas and out to the 
Pike's Peak region, was killed. Some eight men 
were sent from that neighborhood through the 
Federal court to the penitentiary, and fifteen 
more were run out of' the country. At Douglass, 
the south end of the route, in November following, 
seven men were hung by the citizens. After that, 
horses had some value in central Kansas. 

In the early days the management of the^Ag- 
ricultural College persisted in ignoring the pur- 
pose of the act of Congress creating it, and at- 
tempted to rival the University. This the Union 
criticised and condemned. A bill had been drawn 
to consolidate the institution and its great grant 
from the United States with the University at 



Fifty Years in Kansas. 



Lawrence, and would have been presented in the 
Legislature of 1874. One day in the spring of 
1873, John A. Anderson came into the Union 
oflfice, and said: ''A man* up at my house wants 




LINCOLN MARTIN. 



me to be president of the Agricultural College. 
What do you know about it.^" '* There is your 

*N. A. Adams, one of the early pioneers of the State. Bom in 
Putnam county, New York, September 14, 1835. Settled in Riley 
county in 1859; Major of the Eleventl^ Kansas Regiment; for many 
years a Regent of the Agricultural College, and an active and all- 
around useful citizen. He died at Manhattan, May 2, 1895. 



George W. Martin. 



23 



chance to make or break," said Martin. ''Tell 
him you will investigate it." Anderson wanted 
to go to Indianapolis, where Benjamin Harrison 
had secured him a church. He thought his work 




AMELIA MARTIN BURGE. 



in Kansas was finished. But he accepted the 
presidency of the College, and then followed a 
very vicious fight for three or four years, ending in 
that magnificent collection of students, build- 
ings and grounds at Manhattan, the first of its 
class in the United States, a monument to Ander- 
son which no other Kansan will equal in a century. 



24 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

In a collection of letters recently obtained by the 
State Historical Society is one from Chancellor 
John Fraser, telling of and disapproving the move- 
ment to consolidate, because either the Univer- 
sity or the Agricultural College would necessarily 
become a side-show. 

Martin began holding office in 1865, when he 
was twenty-four years of age, and is still in the 
business, and if he holds his present position as 
long as the people will demand, he will have made 
the longest public record of anybody in the history 
of Kansas. This can be accounted for only by 
recognizing the fact that he is about as honest a 
man as ever lived, and that he is fearless and con- 
scientious in the discharge of public duties. No 
graft or boodle ever attached to his name; none 
ever stuck to his hands. He is clean and square. 
He was always independent, and could not be 
brought under control of cliques, combines, or 
interests. He has done what he considered right 
and his duty, and let consequences take care of 
themselves. That made him a good citizen, a 
power in his community, and an excellent public 
official. Perhaps his luck for holding office has 
been due to his associations or surroundings, be- 
cause up to date eleven Junction City men have 
held Federal and State positions aggregating 
eighty-four years, or, including district judge, 109 
years. He was appointed Register of the Junction 



George W, Martin, %5 

City Land Office April 1, 1865, and served until 
November, 1866, when his was the first removal 
made by Andrew Johnson. He was the first to 
be reinstated by Grant in 1869. He was the first 
victim of the Senatorial trouble in 1871, when he 
was traded out and the office changed to Salina. 
In administering the affairs of the office he never 
shirked responsibility, and had no fear of going 
outside of the law to do the fair thing. Many 
instances like the following could be related: 

An Irishman fresh from the old sod filed on a 
piece of land, and two smart Americans jumped his 
claim. They got out contest papers, and had the 
advantage of him only through his ignorance. 
Martin told them they could not steal the man's 
land right before his eyes. They might have suc- 
ceeded in their contest by taking an appeal to 
Washington, but they were told that they had bet- 
ter secure other land, and if they did not, he would 
give them all the trouble he could. After a 
whispered consultation they took other land, and 
the Irishman told Martin years afterwards that 
he had a half-section of fine land for which he was 
indebted to him. 

A case came before Martin in which Gen. Nelson 
A. Miles was interested. Miles was a Colonel in 
the regular army, and in command at Fort Harker. 
Some boomers at Brookville and Ellsworth dis- 
covered coal on Government land on the hilltop 



26 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

across the Smoky Hill from Ellsworth. They got 
up a stock company, got General Miles interested 
as a stockholder, and after a time quarreled, and 
all rushed to the Land Office to file on the land. 
A contest resulted, and it came before Martin, as 
Register. The civilians had an all-round lawyer, 
a good land lawyer, as their attorney, and Miles 
managed his own case. Half an hour after the 
hearing began. Miles raised a point which Martin 
sustained. The lawyer, as is the custom with 
that tribe, told Martin what an ignoramus he 
was, but the case went on. In a short time Miles 
raised another point which Martin sustained, and 
that knocked the case out of court. The lawyer 
ripped and snorted, but Miles walked out with a 
smile on his face. An appeal was taken, and the 
Commissioner of the General Land Ofiice sus- 
tained the rulings of Martin. Then the case went 
up to the Secretary of the Interior, who also sus- 
tained Martin, which convinced him that there 
was a chance occasionally for the application of 
ordinary common-sense in a law suit, even by a 
layman. 

During the time he was Register of the Land 
Ofiice, partly in 1865, 1866, 1869,' and 1870,— 
these years covering the beginning of the real 
settlement of Kansas upon the close of the war, — 
he did the largest business ever done at one land 
office in the State. For more than half the time 



George W. Martin. 27 

the applicants for land waited upon in the office 
would run from fifty to one hundred and twenty- 
five a day. The first great settlement of the Re- 
publican, Smoky Hill and Solomon valleys was at 
that time, and thousands upon thousands of the 




CHARLES COULSON MARTIN. 



titles to land in central Kansas are based on Mar- 
tin's certificate. 

During the interim (1867-68) between his terms 
as Register of the Land Office, Martin served as 
Assessor of Internal Revenue for all the region 



28 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

between Manhattan and the west Hne of the State. 
It was his duty to go every month along the line 
of the Union Pacific Railroad and look after 
Uncle Sam's income. At that time every person 
was taxed at least ten dollars a year for living. He 
had many adventures in his work, but never had 
any trouble with the rough characters with whom 
he was brought into contact by his business. His 

usual greeting was, " Here comes that revenue 

man again!" They would invariably get out a 
bottle and a glass, but he always refused to drink, 
saying he could not do business and take that 
stuff. After some good-natured badinage they 
would tell Martin to tax them what was right and 
they would pay it. Everybody was flush, and the 
tax was treated as a sort of joke. Scores of men 
paid one hundred dollars for a wholesale liquor- 
dealer's license rather than twenty-five dollars 
for a retailer's license. They did that as a matter 
of pride and dignity. Upon one occasion he left 
Hays City for Ellsworth at ten o'clock at night, in 
a passenger coach at the end of a freight train. 
He was the only person in the car. Soon the 
trainmen disappeared. It was the coldest night 
he remembers ever to have experienced. There 
was a stove in the car, but it was locked, and he 
had to walk back and forth the length of the car 
to keep from freezing ; he reached Ellsworth about 
five A.M. 



George TV, Martin. 29 

In his youth Martin was very zealous in punish- 
ing whisky-sellers, and in that work he secured an 
occasional black eye, something modern enforcers 
of the law know nothing about, because they do 
nothing but bark and howl at oJEBcers instead of 
doing something themselves. This gave him some 
vigorous ideas about the matter, and led him to 
always antagonize putting the contemptible an- 
nual, quarterly and daily scramble for beer in the 
fundamental law, to maintain which the legal and 
political jugglery had almost entirely overshad- 
owed moral suasion and the duty of individual 
sobriety. One of the stories told of those days 
may not be amiss here : 

Martin was a witness in a case against a man 
for selling whisky to an Indian. He had hap- 
pened, as he was passing, to see a saloon-keeper 
bring a brown stone jug out of the back door, put 
it in a gunny-sack and give it to the Indian. On 
cross-examination Martin was asked what was in 
the' jug, and he replied, "Whisky." "How do 
you know it was whisky.?" "Mv reason tells me 
so." "Did vou taste it.?" "No." "Smell it.?" 
"No." "See it.?" "No." "Then how do you 
know it was whisky.?" "Because a saloon- 
keeper would not put water in a brown jug, take 
it out of the back door and give it to an Indian. 
Now, I swear it was whisky." He wasn*t the kind 
of witness to] give the whole [thing away, by say- 



30 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

ing in the end he didn't know anything about it. 
His Owl Club letter, written in 1880, has been 
pronounced by William Allen White the most 
powerful temperance exhortation he ever read. 

Martin was always a Republican in politics. 
He cast his lot with the Republican party before 
he could vote. But he was always a good citizen 
before a party man. He was too independent and 
straiglitforward in character to be a party to any 
job or scheme. When shysters, political mounte- 
banks and party-pluggers put up a job in the Re- 
publican party, Martin bolted and helped to stop 
the party scandal. He bolted when prohibition 
was put in the platform, denying the right of the 
party to do any such thing, and he has only con- 
tempt for what he calls " the awful shystering and 
double-dealing the thing has fastened on the State 
of Kansas." He supported Glick for Governor 
in 1882. He never had much respect for the idea 
of reform within the party, but always said that 
the best way to reform his own party was to vote 
the other ticket once in a while. He led the bolt 
for John A. Anderson for Congress in the Fifth 
District in 1886, when a lot of political rounders, 
through the local candidate dodge, beat Anderson 
in the convention. In Wyandotte county he 
denounced the party when by the most infamous 
treachery and ballot-box stuffing it put up a can- 
didate, and Mason S. Peters, a Democrat, was 



George W. Martin. 31 

elected to Congress from the Second District. A 
score of names of successful party leaders might be 
called, showing that bolting corrupt candidates or 
jobs never politically hurt a man in Kansas. 

The Republicans of Kansas received their first 
whipping in 1874, and Martin was charged with 
some of the responsibility because he had a Dem- 
ocrat employed as binder in the State printing, 
but he thought that possibly two defaulting county 
treasurers holding jobs in the Governor's office 
might have had some influence in the matter. In 
January, 1875, a caucus was conceived for the sole 
purpose of getting Martin out of the office of 
State Printer. His friends carried a motion to 
adjourn the caucus without action by a majority 
of three; a row was caused and a second count 
was had, with adjournment two ahead; another 
row and another vote resulted in one majority for 
adjournment, whereupon one-half the caucus gath- 
ered up their hats and coats and ran down the 
stairs, and Martin was given his second term. 
There was no caucus for Printer in 1873, 1877, or 
1879. The caucus for United States Senator, 
January, 1879, w^as most disgraceful. After three 
days of balloting, Horton claimed enough to elect, 
at 3 A. M. January 31 ; but in joint convention 
that day Ingalls won by a vote of 86 to 80, 85 be- 
ing necessary. When a member of the I^egislature 



32 Fijty Years in Kansas. 



in 1883, Martin refused to go into a caucus for 
Speaker. 

In the early days of Junction City, not because 
of any excessive piety, but because he was raised 
that way, he was always interested in church 
work, and every preacher who came along was in- 
vited in and made welcome. Until he believed 
the proper time had arrived, he opposed all at- 
tempts to organize a Presbyterian church there. 
He believed it folly to organize a church which 
could not support itself. In 1865 a fellow drifted 
in one Friday and said he was a New School Pres- 
byterian preacher, and wanted to preach Sunday. 
Saturday afternoon Martin fixed up a room with 
boxes and boards for seats, and on Sunday morn- 
ing drummed up a good crowd. The fellow 
preached all right, but Monday morning hvi began 
to talk about organizing a church. Martin said 
there was no chance for a church there then ; that 
the time had not come. He bored Martin all day 
Monday, all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs- 
day. Martin was living at a boarding-house, and 
Friday morning the preacher got all the boarders 
on their knees and prayed the breakfast cold and 
made everybody mad. After breakfast Martin 
took him around the corner of the house and said, 
"Now, you git; don't you stay another minute on 
my account." He went west and settled on the 
Saline, and for many years the people coming in 



George W. Martin. 



38 



from that region would tell Martin of the abuse 
that fellow gave him. Later, Martin became in- 
terested in a good old Congregational brother who 
was at one time much mistreated by some of the 
people, and in consoling the old fellow told him to 




GEORGE W. MARTIN WHEN HE CAME TO KANSAS. 
(From an old daguerreotype.) 

go back to his farm and let the town go to hell — 
that he had done his duty. Noble L. Prentis 
dressed this incident up and made it a good story 
which he never missed an opportunity to tell to 
a gathering of preachers. But do not understand 



34 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

from this that Martin was not on good terms with 
all the pioneer preachers. There were many 
strong men amono^ them who made their marks 
in the development w^hich followed. His view 
after forty years of observation is that the home 
missionary was the most useful man in the com- 
munity, exhibiting more statesmanship than a 
whole county full of politicians; many instances 
could be named of farseeing judgment and heroic 
and patriotic service rendered by the pioneer priest 
or preacher, aside from the solace of their minis- 
trations among a people attempting to establish 
homes in an unbroken wilderness with no capital 
but their faith in the future. 

From the moment Martin met John A. Ander- 
son the two men were as twin brothers. Anderson 
came to Junction City in 1868, and the church 
was a success from that time, and for thirty-nine 
years it has been a prosperous, self-supporting, 
harmonious institution. Mrs. Elizabeth Hender- 
son, widow of the late Captain Robert Henderson, 
and Mr. Martin, are the only ones now living of 
the charter members of this church. This or- 
ganization obtained $1200 from the Board of 
Church Erection, but never a dollar from the 
Home Mission Board. 



December 20, 1863, Mr. Martin was married to 
Lydia Coulson, whose family was on the way to 



George W, Martin. 35 

Kansas from Columbiana county, Ohio, at the 
same time in the spring of 1857 that the Martin 
family was on the river. She was born at Mi- 
nerva, Columbiana county, March 16, 1845. She 
died in Kansas City June 7, 1900. She was the 
daughter of Allen and Catherine Coulson. The 
father was a Quaker from Pennsylvania and the 
mother a Methodist from Virginia. They had 
some interest in the Underground Railroad, for 
her first recollections were concerning the arrival 
of negroes at their barn in the morning and their 
disappearance in the evening. Mrs. Martin was 
the mother of five children: Lincoln, born in 
Junction City November 1, 1864; married June 
22, 1904, to Mary C. Ferguson, daughter of James 
Ferguson of Kansas City, Kansas; Amelia, born 
June 10, 1867, in Junction City; married October 
7, 1903, to Napoleon Bonaparte Burge of Topeka; 
Charles Coulson Martin, born at Topeka, October 
7, 1876; married September 22, 1904, to Mar- 
gurite Haskell, daughter of W. W. Haskell, of 
Kansas City, Kansas; Elizabeth and Ruth died 
in infancv. Three members of the Coulson fam- 
ily served in the Kansas Legislature : Ambrose 
U. Mussey, of Pottawatomie, first State Legis- 
lature, 1861 ; George W. Martin, of Geary, 1883, 
and George H. Coulson, of Harper, 1891 and 1893. 
October 10, 1901, Mr. Martin married Mrs. 
Josephine Blakely. Mrs. Blakely was the first 



36 Fifty Years m Kansas. 

girl Martin met when he went to Junction City 
in 1861. Her first husband was Major William 
S. Blakely, Martin's partner in the publication of 
the Union for three years ; he quit the newspaper 
and went into the hardware business. He served 
in the State Senate two sessions, and in the House 
of Representatives one term, and postmaster at 
Junction, and also Mayor of Junction City. He 
participated in the battle of Wilson Creek as a 
member of Co. B, Second Kansas. He was born 
in Troy, New York, July 20, 1838. He refused an 
appointment to AVest Point by Russell Sage, then 
a member of Congress, because he preferred to 
come West. He settled in Geary county in 1858. 
Josephine Morgan was born in New York, Feb- 
ruary 11, 1846. She reached Kansas with her 
parents in April, 1858. June 4, 1865, she was 
married to William S. Blakely. They were the 
parents of the following children : Selden Price 
Blakely, March 13, 1868, married Jennie Furth, 
and living in Okanogan county, Washington; 
Frederick William, September 25, 1870, died in 
infancy; Josephine, born September 8, 1872, 
married E. J. Clough, and living at Portland, 
Oregon; Ellen J., April 6, 1874, married E. R. 
Ketner, died June 27, 1904; Catharine C, born 
September 30, 1875, married Frank O'Reilley, 
living in Chicago, Illinois ; George Martin Blakely, 
born January 16, 1879, married to Miss Elsie 



George W. Martin. 



37 



Cochran, and living in Condon, Oregon; Warren 
S. Blakely, born September 2^, 1882, married to 
Ethel Loftin, and living in Shaniko, Oregon. 
Mr. Blakely died June 11, 1885. 




The second story was the home of the Union in 1861 , first floor 
the City Jail. Torn down in 1906. 

In January, 1873, one week before the York- 
Pomeroy exposure, Martin was elected State 
Printer, at the close of the most violent one-week's 
campaign ever known in the Kansas Legislature. 
The fight was bitter, although there were but three 
ballots, and it was carried into the Supreme 



38 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

Court in a contest. The Topeka Commonwealth 
was then the RepubHcan organ of the State. The 
State printing was run in about as loose a manner 
as anything could be, and Martin was selected 
by those desiring to make a change for the better. 
He was elected State Printer four times, and came 
within a scratch of making it the fifth time, and 
had a fight on his hands every minute of the en- 
tire eight years in which he held the office. The 
first time he was offered a bonus not to qualify, 
and his response was: "The men who voted for 
me meant something, and I will not sell them out." 
An examination of the printing prior to 1873 will 
show that the State paid about as much for pica 
slugs as it did for straight reading-matter. The 
reorganization of the State printing on its present 
basis by Martin attracted attention throughout 
the country. A high Eastern authority stated 
that it was the first time public printing had ever 
been made equal in quality to the best commercial 
printing. The first job Martin turned out was 
12,000 copies of the Kansas school laws, and under 
the same fee bill, with the same Secretary of State 
to measure, and the same copy to the letter, he 
made the 12,000 copies cost $1,370 less than 
10,000 cost the year before; while the reports of 
the State officers, with some increase in size, cost 
invariably from twenty-five to thirty-three per 
cent, less than they cost the year before. It is 



George W. Martin. * 39 

the opinion of the writer that an examination of 
the records will show that Martin is the only man 
who ever reformed any public job at the expense 
of his own pocket. And if anybody thinks it is 
an easy matter to make a practical reform in a 
public office, the writer will state that Martin 
had a hades of a time whenever the Legislature 
met. Not that the legislators w^ere bad, but a 
robust set of grafters infested Kansas, and they 
had no respect for the economy he had WTOught. 
In his five contests but one man approached him 
for boodle, and that man was not a member of the 
Legislature. A host of grafters were cut out by 
Martin's election, and they pursued him for years, 
but he won out all right. He once mentioned to 
a State Senator that a certain bill had been in- 
troduced in the House the day before, the purpose 
of which was to divide up the printing and annoy 
him. In attempting to give the details the Sena- 
tor shut him off with the statement that he did 
not have to understand the details of the bill; 
that Martin had twenty-two fellows in the Senate 
who would dance everv time he fiddled, and ended 
with "Now you fiddle, and don't bother me again." 
Martin never took a job in his life that he did 
not improve or advance, and he has a holy con- 
tempt for any man who thinks there is nothing 
in a position but the salary. He has always main- 
tained that the best service was the best politics. 



40 F'^Py Years in Kansas. 

Noble L. Prentis, in the paper already referred to, 
said: ''The dingy old 'pub. docs.' of the Eastern 
States were as tattered rags beside a silk gown, 
when compared with the books which came from 
the State Printing House in Martin's time. He 
it was who (outside of these) published Wilder's 
'Annals of Kansas,' the handsomest, most useful 
and worst paying book ever printed in this western 
country." James F. Legate, who always opposed 
Martin, introduced the following resolution, which 
was adopted by the joint convention which elected 
his successor, January 18, 1881 : 

"Resolved, That Geo. W. Martin, the retiring 
State Printer, is entitled to, and we tender him, 
the warmest commendations of the Legislature of 
the State of Kansas in joint convention assem- 
bled, for the high standard to which he has raised 
the State printing; for his integrity of character 
as State Printer, being ever watchful of the rights 
of the people, even to his own expense. He com- 
menced his career eight years ago with an un- 
tarnished character, and leaves it to-day with a 
character unblemished, even by the severest critic." 

That was the only time a joint convention of the 
Legislature ever did such a thing. 

In 1888, Martin removed from Junction City 
to Kansas City, Kansas, to establish there a 
Kansas daily, advised by three of the most prom- 
inent and successful business men in the West. 



George W, Martin. 41 

There was much humor and tragedy in the twelve 
years that followed. The effort was on the high 
road to success when the panic of 1893 knocked 
all the small or medium enterprises in the town, 
but with the heroic help of W. L. and D. W. 
Witmer, business partners, the debris, in the shape 
of bills, has been practically all cleaned up, and 
there are no judgments to come disturbing the 
slumbers of any one in consequence, leaving the 
proprietors with a large, rich and varied stock 
of experience, for which they paid an imprecedented 
premium. The friends who never tired, and the 
friends made, in that struggle, more than out- 
weigh all disappointed ambition. 

One of the most vicious fights Martin ever had 
was with the labor unions of Kansas City, Kansas. 
They attempted to have the City Council pass an 
ordinance limiting all work for the city to members 
of labor unions. It came up in the Republican 
primary election, and the politicians and candidates 
were so frightened that Martin could not get any 
promises out of them not to pass the ordinance. He 
wrote a speech, but so timid are public officials when 
confronted with a contest with unions that he was 
not allowed to deliver it. So, he printed it and 
delivered it direct to the people. He distributed 
thousands of copies. It went into every house and 
every shop in the cities about the mouth of the 
Kaw. Every passenger on the street cars had 



42 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

one to take home. The address was entitled 
''Organized Labor in Wyandotte County — Its 
Record of Lawlessness, Infamy, and Disaster to 
Workinojmen, their Wives and Children." I^he 
effect of the address was to check the movement, 
but in June an order to renew the fight was made 
by the Trades Assembly, and Martin wrote an- 
other speecli, on *'The Viciousness and Lawless- 
ness of Labor Unions." This address was de- 
livered before the Council of Kansas City, Kansas, 
October 24, 1899, and the ordinance was beaten 
by a vote of eight to three. Over 75,000 copies 
of these two speeches were printed, and he had 
calls for them from all parts of the country. The 
typographical union with which he had this fight 
had its charter taken from it. Jn every contest 
through a period of four or ^ve years Martin 
whij)ped all the unions in the two cities. 

He was (irand Master of the Odd Fellows in 
1872 and 1873. He was likewise strenuous in 
this position. He suspended a Grand Treasurer 
and took the money from him just in time to save 
loss; and he had the entire Grand Lodge in- 
volved in a libel suit, in approving a certain action 
of a local lodge, in which the Supreme Court of 
the State finally sustained him. He was made an 
Odd Fellow in Frontier Lodge No. 25, at Junction 
City, where his membership still remains, forty 



George W, Martin, 43 



years ago, on March 29, 1867. In 1883 and 1884. 
he was Mayor of Junction City. 

The wagon-bridge across the Repubhcan river 
alongside of the Union Pacific Railway is an in- 
teresting evidence of Martin's determination to 
get through with a thing. In the early days a 
buncli of promoters in the town worked through 
Congress a grant to the State of Kansas of all 
the land between Junction City and the Smoky 
Hill and Republican rivers, a portion of the mil- 
itary reserve, about four thousand acres, for 
bridge purpose, the State obligating itself to keep 
the bridge there free for the use of the United 
States forever. The I>egislature passed the land 
over to a local bridge company, and took a straw 
bond to maintain the bridge. The bridge was 
built, the land divided, and in a year or so the 
bridge fell down. As Representative from that 
county in the Legislature of 1883, Martin failed 
to get a direct appropriation to replace the bridge, 
but he got the consent of the State that the War 
Department replace the bridge and hold the ex- 
pense out of any funds due the State. After a 
marvelous lot of red tape the transfer of funds 
was made, when it was discovered that there was 
not enough money by $1500. He circulated a 
petition asking the county commissioners to put 
up the balance, which was done, and there it 
stands — a local bridge built by the State. Martin 



44 Fifty Years in Kansas. 



was not a member of the bridge company, but at 
the sale of the land, April 20, 18G9, representing 
a friend wlio was, he bid in six or eight acres, 
where three bridges now stand, at $2.50 per acre, 
to be paid in the scrip of the company, which was 
then as good as money because it had 4000 acres 
of land, at a reasonable appraisement, back of it. 
The State sued the bondsmen in September, 1877, 
and lost. The Attorney-General, closing his re- 
port, said: "The State must now maintain the 
bridge forever, without the hope of getting a 
dollar." At the time of the suit three of the com- 
pany were dead, and seven were bankrupt. 

He always had a fad for Kansas books, and be- 
gan early to make a collection. A few years ago 
he turned this collection over to the College of 
Emporia. It now numbers 825 volumes, besides 
a quantity of pamphlets, and is in an alcove bear- 
ing his name. 

Martin was intensely interested in the rebuild- 
ing of Fort Riley. During the first year or two 
the job moved slowly, although the Post was 
known as Sheridan's pet. After he had gone to 
Kansas City, in 1888, Capt. Bertrand Rockwell 
wrote him that he had a letter from Senator P. B. 
Plumb saying that Fort Riley was simply a local 
affair, and he could not do anything for it. Mar- 
tin prepared a column editorial in the Kansas 
City Gazette on the advantages of Fort Riley, 



George W. Martin, 45 



and then wrote letters to about twenty newspaper 
friends covering all sections of the State, asking 
them to each write something along the same line 
for their papers. Every editor did so. When 
their papers reached Washington Senator Plumb 
took hold with all his vigor. The trouble was not 
that Plumb had any objection to assisting any 
local job or interest in Kansas, but that he had 
some antipathy to the regular army. Those who 
knew Fort Riley twenty-five years ago would not 
recognize a foot of it to-day. Had Sheridan lived 
five or ten years longer, Riley might have out- 
stripped Fort Leavenworth. Leavenworth once 
fined Sheridan for fast driving. 

He never was satisfied with the name of Davis 
(given by a pro-slavery legislature in honor of 
Jefferson Davis) for a county in Kansas, much 
less the one in which he found a home. Several 
suggestions of a change had been made, when the 
Lhiion thought that John W. Geary, third Ter- 
ritorial Governor, a great Major-General, and 
twice Governor of Pennsylvania, should be hon- 
ored with a place on the map of Kansas. Ten 
years was occupied in a quarrel about this, a 
change resulting to that of Geary, in the Legis- 
lature of 1889. Three sessions of the Legislature 
were bothered with this matter, when it was 
finally submitted to a vote of the people. The 
name Geary prevailed by a majority of 65, being 



46 Fifty Years in Kansas. 

the only name for a county thus established. 
Martin's father and Geary were friends away 
back in the thirties, in the Alleghany Mountains. 
Martin has been wrongfully held responsible for 
the change of Wyandotte to Kansas City, Kansas. 
The name was changed before he became a citizen 
of that city, but he did his utmost as a newspaper 
editor to establish the new name. 

Martin has been around the Legislature during 
every Senatorial fight excej^t that of Lane and 
Pomeroy in 1861, and the Ingiills-Pomeroy con- 
test of 1873. In his State Printer fights he passed 
through the Pomeroy and anti-Pomeroy contests, 
and also the Horton-Ingalls fight in 1870, and he 
was never expected to take sides, and always had 
supporters in all factions. 

When asked about finances, Martin replied, 
"I have never had any sense about money matters, 
but have always managed to pay one hundred 
cents on the dollar." Who would wish to do better? 

In 1873 D. W. Wilder, as Auditor of State, un- 
covered a shortage of some $35,000 in the State 
Treasury, and the State Treasurer was impeached. 
In his report for 1874 Mr. Wilder charged that State 
officers had been in sympathy with the defaulting 
State Treasurer, and used all their power to shield 
and protect him in his crime, closing with this 
statement: "The officers who did not connive at 
fraud, but who wanted the truth told and dis- 



George W, Martin, 47 



obedience, of the law to stop, were Samuel A. 
Kingman, George W. Martin, and David Dick- 
inson/' 

In the Republican State Convention of 1894 Mr. 
Martin received 1^2 votes for Governor. He had 
a few friends in different parts of the State who 
thought he ought to be thus honored, but he him- 
self was not dangerously afflicted or in the slight- 
est inflated. If he had been called then, who 
knows but that the subsequent political history 
of the State might not have been different? — for 
he has a faculty of getting along with people and 
at the same time doing things to suit himself, 
and doing them well. 



George W. Martin was one of the founders of 
the State Historical Society. Its interests were 
ever near his heart. Upon the death of its first 
Secretary, Franklin G. Adams, December 2, 1899, 
one of the greatest men of Kansas and one of the 
founders of this great State, Mr. Martin was 
elected Secretary. There was not another man 
in Kansas who could so successfully have filled 
that position. The Collections of the Society are 
being increased at a wonderful rate, and many 
new features have been added. The Society has 
been brought into close touch with the people of 
the State. It is beginning to be appreciated by 
the State Legislatures, and in ten years it is be- 



48 i'^ipy Years in Kansas, 

lieved measures will be taken to secure the erection 
of History Hall for the accommodation of the vast 
Collection already on hand and to be secured. In 
many respects and in many ways the Kansas His- 
torical Society is the foremost institution of the 
kind in the United States. And taken altogether 
there is but one now in advance of it. It is the 
pioneer in the collection and preservation of cur- 
rent newspapers published in its jurisdiction. This 
newspaper collection is the most remarkable in the 
world. The publications of the Society are the 
best put out by any similar institution in America. 
These things are true because Kansas has kept 
men at the head of the Society who helped to make 
the history they were set to preserve. They were 
familiar with everything pertaining to that his- 
tory — were themselves a part of it. 
. Martin is profoundly grateful for the fact that 
after all these years of political and editorial scrap- 
ping, in which he no doubt did and said many 
unreasonable things, there seems to be only good 
feeling toward him on the part of all. 

George W. Martin is one of the successful men 
of Kansas. It is now fifty years since he made the 
State his home. Incidents of a practical value to 
the State abound through his entire career. There 
has not been a day of all that time that he was not 
a good citizen, a kind father, an affectionate hus- 
band, a patriot, and a power for good. 



George W. Martin. 49 



THE ANNIVERSARY OBSERVED. 

The completion of Mr. Martin's fifty years in 
Kansas was observed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Martin, 823 Topeka avenue, Monday evening, 
April 8th, by a dinner with the following guests : 

Gov. and Mrs. E. W. Hoch. 

Chief • Justice and Mrs. W. A. Johnston. 

Secretary of Agriculture F. D. Coburn and 

Rev. Dr. S. S. Estey and wife. [wife. 

William E. Connelley and wife. 

Eugene F. Ware and wife. 

John E. Frost and wife. 

B. F. Flenniken and wife. 

W^ A. McCarter and wife. 

F. P. MacLennan and wife. 

Joseph G. Waters and wife. 

George A. Clark and wife. 

H. B. Kelly and wife. 

L. D. Whittemore and wife. 

A. K. Rodgers and wife. 

Mrs. Ellen H. Orr. 
And again Tuesday evening, April 9th, by a 
family reunion and dinner with the following 
guests : 

Mrs. Eva C. Burge. 

Miss Fannie C. Burge. 



50 Fijtij Years in Kansas. 

Miss Alzina B. Biirge. 
Miss Ruth C. Burge. 

Napoleon B. Burge and x\melia Martin, his 
Cornehus B. Burge and wife. [wife. 

Lincohi Martin and wife and Charles C. 
Martin and wife, of Kansas City, Kansas. 
George A. Root and wife. 
Miss Zu Adams. 
Miss Clara Francis. 
Miss liUcy S. Greene. 
William E. Bacon. 
Miss Gertrude Coburn. 
Miss Willa Rodgers. 
Miss Nannie Veale. 
Mrs. Geo. W. Veale, jr. 
Col. Geo. W. Veale and wife. 
Mrs. J. M. Sullivant. 
Mrs. J. P. Griswold. 

Mrs. Elizabeth A. Johnson, of Courtland. 
W. H. Mackey, sr., and wife. 
Miss Elizabeth Henderson and 
Loring Trott, of Junction City. 
Mrs. Ellen H. Orr. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




016 086 753 ft 



Crane & Company 

ToPEKA, Kan. 

1907. 



